Wholesome calendar from Wholefoods

BALLARAT Wholefoods Collective turns ten next year, and founder and president Wendy Aston said the group are preparing a photo calendar to ring in the occasion.

“There’ll be a few different producers like Ballarat Mushroom Farm and Enbom Honeys on there, and a lot of the products we sell,” she said.

“We’ll have our dates on there and try to have certain milestones that can cross over into themes like Plastic Free July.

“We’re trying to cover as much of our history and our ethos as we can into those 12 photos.”

Pictures were taken by member Penthea Marshall-Radcliffe, and Ms Aston said the production will be kept as local as possible.

The collective was the second organisation to join BGT Jobs and Training in forming the Barkly Square community hub in 2018, relocating from Brown Hill Recreation Reserve.

Ballarat Wholefoods Collective started out of Ms Aston’s Brown Hill home, taking notes from Hepburn’s equivalent.

With about 200 annual membership renewals, and over 600 people signed up throughout the decade, she said they quickly outgrew their origins.

The range of stock has also expanded from 20 items to over 200, and Ms Aston said it’s been incredible to look back on the group’s development.

“Just looking from where we started, it’s always growing. We’re about to get an upright freezer from a council grant so we’re only going to keep expanding as the years go by,” she said.

“We’ll definitely be having some form of celebration for the birthday as well and the people who’ve shopped with us from the start will be a big part of that.

“If it hadn’t been for them, we wouldn’t be where we are.”

The calendar will be available at Barkly Square from October, and is set to cost $20.